Abyss and hope.
The last thing I remember, my last memory, was of myself dying. A moment of pain and later, feeling inert and liberated.
Yet here is still my consciousness. I always wondered what existed after death, having lived so long in the face of it and it being part of my daily life, curiosity was to be expected.
I always wanted to believe that dying was simply a permanent rest, a release from all mortal bonds and a peace that I had only dreamed of attaining.
Today? Not if I know today or now, as I have no notion of the time that passes around me, I only know that I am aware that I still exist, I have no idea if I can see, speak or feel, as I only exist. I exist in a cloak of darkness that fills me with comfort in my existence.
I can't explain it, I can only say that something in me is comfortable with existing.
Suddenly something takes my interest, although I cannot see, I am certain that something is around me, a primal instinct tells me that a danger affects me as I often felt when camping with my group.
Yet I can't see, and I certainly can't know what it is. Everything around me just keeps feeling the same, it's just that certainty of something stalking that is now present.
And that's when it happened.
Out of the darkness that surrounded me, I could finally see and observe, as well as feel, not with the senses we mortals know, but with my very existence.
Colours I never thought existed, euphoria and calmness, as well as all kinds of feelings I could ever feel in my life, multiplied and overflowing.
I don't know how much time passed, it felt like my whole life and much more, but it was enough to feel that having survived all that time in the hell that was my life, it was more than worthy and enough to enjoy this.
However, I don't know when it happened, that soon everything around me disappeared, and I found myself surrounded by bizarre, creepy and unpleasant creatures. I felt no fear, I was certain that they could do nothing to me, and in the face of the hell that was my world, I felt that they were no big deal.
What a fool I was.
The vivid colours disappeared, and my surroundings changed to a feeling and certainty of decay, rottenness and rancidity. I felt no smells but I was sure that whatever was around me, it would be a mixture of everything that made me disgusted and repulsed me, and much more.
A feeling inside me of discomfort spread over my existence, that peace and tranquillity that I felt in the previous place was no longer enough. I felt how my surroundings were slowly contaminating me and spreading their disgusting maw over me. I avoided thinking the corruption of which I was aware was afflicting me, however it was a lost cause.
All the more so when after a while I saw her. She was suddenly in front of me, my former existence vanished and I felt again, my body, or rather what was left of it, prostrate in front of her repulsive, abhorrent, disgusting, obscene, lewd, lascivious and degrading figure. And yet, I could not help thinking that she was magnificent and majestic.
I didn't know her name, I didn't know who she was, I didn't know what was around me, but I didn't need to know too much to understand that the one who stood before me was a king and a queen, she was the ultimate expression of all that she represented. Although she repulsed me in an existential way, her maw had taken root long ago and I was never aware of it. Her atrocious figure, though unknown throughout my life, was familiar from the first time I saw her.
When she raised her voice, no words escaped, but rather feelings, actions and corruption. She needed no words to express, my soul and being, as well as that of all around her already knew intrinsically what she wanted from us.
I looked to my right, and saw another man like me, he also looked at me, yet in his eyes I could see glimpses of feelings, I was certain to know that he did know the name of her who stood before us. I knew that he understood where we were, and worse, I knew that he was me. And I was him.
It was at that moment that I knew the fate that awaited me. It was there that I understood the resignation, horror and pain in his eyes. His soul ached, not from physical pain, but from knowing that his being ended in this place.
For knowing what awaited us.
I am sure it was many years, many more than we both lived. I don't know at what point we became one, but between us we found the will to go on and not fall, and yet it was this will that led her, the Queen of perversion, the dark prince, Slaanesh, to take our souls and squeeze them of all the corruption and brokenness that remained of who we once were.
We were raped, not only in body, but in soul, existence, and mind. We knew the height of lust and passion, we were corrupted and stripped of all decency, honour, and being.
We never felt so much pain, not only physical, but existential, we never felt so much despair and resignation. I never thought that after dying and living hell in life, I would know the true abyss. That I would meet Slaanesh.
Yet, despite all that, we never managed to break completely, we had each other, we had us. And that was perhaps her mistake. Who at the time thought it was the best of us, and what made her glee and enjoy making us go through the unmentionable.
But it was that which never made us lose hope, even in despair, even in resignation. Both of us, more him than me, had hope. At first I didn't know why, neither could he tell me, not out of fear, but so that she wouldn't strip of our own beings.
His name didn't have to be said, I knew that much. But I knew that he would at some point take over, perhaps in a stretch of time that eludes my ancient notion, but I knew it after he made me understand it.
The Emperor would one day face Slaanesh, and on that day perhaps we would find final peace.
It was that hope that sustained us, that moved us.
And that hope proved to be based, for one day we felt it, a golden light in the distance of all this corruption, a beacon of light that promised greatness, shelter and love. The atrocities around us dwindled, fleeing from the grandeur and purity that the light emanated.
We felt our beings burn and decay as we were bathed in it, yet instead of fleeing like all corruption and disgust, we both bathed in it and accepted to be cleansed of all indecency that Slaanesh turned us into.
Soon, whatever we were at the time, ceased to exist and all that was left behind was what we once were, but broken.
We were not a speck of sand of what we were when we arrived, Slaanesh stripped us of all our identity and soul. Yet all that remained was hope, and in its magnificent grandeur this light gave us back what we were, for it saw that we both never doubted, that we both always hoped.
The pain disappeared, the only thing we felt was a shelter of love that filled our whole being.
Hope was returned and it was much more than we expected, we had no tears, but we felt our souls sobbing in joy.
We were saved, we were loved and we were rewarded.
The only thing that made us look back at the disgust and corruption we were once a part of, was a cry that shook everything around us.
Behind the scream a promise from the one who corrupted us. Slaanesh, in his infinite indecency and disgust made one thing clear to us.
"You will return."
And before those words took root in our being, it did not have to be his greatness that said it, nor us. But the reality we were in.
If so we would return, we would know that their greatness would come, if not, we would cease to exist in hope.
****
When Kang saw the head of Ryuuji detach from his body, a primal anger permeated his body as he took the cannibal in front of him, without his weapon, and ripped the spine of him. With pure raw strength.
"RYUUJI!" The scream of Ruka deafened over the scream of pain from the cannibal. As Kang use his spine and whipped at the other cannibals that watched at him with fear.
Using his body, the horns on the sides of his face as the ones on his forearms, he used his being as weapon to pass through the multitude of cannibals around him.
Not minding the hanging corpses that were unlucky enough to be stabbed by his horns, he pushed through and protected what remained of his boss.
His hard body was enough to sustain the attacks that passed through his armor, yet he didn't minded the pain he felt. Grabbing Ryuuji's katana, he made a quick succession of slashes around him and cleaned the remaining enemies, cutting clean from the bones.
Soon, the rest of his teammates reached his position. He saw with the corner of his eyes how Ruka sobbed with anger over Ryuuji's body, and then saw her anger and fury took the best of her and killed in a berserker rage everything around her, her strength being enough to make the various remaining from those that died through her blade, fly towards the column of enemies that seemed to not end.
Making a few of them fall, and slip over, created a chain reaction, as more and more started falling against each other. A few of them being unlucky or lucky enough to be tramped over.
Yet this sudden situation was enough for Beep to carry both Ryuuji's corpse and his head, placing it over our bull, Toro.
"We have to get the hell out of here, now!" the voice of Syntax voice looming over the group, making the majority of them to return their focus, except Ruka who was blind in berserker rage.
"STENN, MASARU, GRAB RUKA AND LET'S GO, we have already lost boss. I don't want her to follow his same fate." Ordering the only two that could somehow take a hold of the berserker Ruka, Syntax started grabbing the remaining blade from Ryuuji's and started running upwards.
Seto, Kang and Manin followed behind him with Toro carrying Ryuuji's corpse and the two Shek towers weapon's, as they went to grab Ruka and started running behind the rest.
"GET OFF ME YOU BASTARDS, LET ME KILL THESE COCKROACHES, I DON'T WANT TO SURVIVE ANOTHER DEFEAT!" Not minding her words, knowing the pain and despair behind it, they carried her while Ruka could only watch in despair the column of cannibals slowly moving again towards them.
As a defeated Shek, she once lived the humiliation of those that didn't fall during a fight, she was unlucky enough to survive and see her honor as a warrior being stripped from her.
Yet what pained her the most, was seeing a honorable man dying on her stead so they could survive.
As the group continue running upwards the mountain, they heard bells ringing, signifying that World's End seemed to already spotted the incoming wave of cannibals.
Yet suddenly, a shadow encompassed the surrounding area of the group. The light in the sky dimmed, any sound was deafened over silence and the group disappeared from the path.
The entirety of Ryuuji's squad disappeared from this world. As if they never existed before. The cannibals that were a few hundred meters behind could only watch in strangeness the sudden situation. Yet they didn't paid attention and soon continue their path towards World's End.
A battle awaited them, and the time they lost against Ryuuji and his squad would have proved to be enough to ensure the survival of the long lasting outpost of World's End. Yet his sacrifice would remain forever unknown, just like many stories that this hell make sure to be forgotten in the desert of time.